1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire harness and a manufacturing method of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, a large number and various kinds of electric devices are mounted on a vehicle, and a wire harness is connected to the various kinds of electric devices. Electric power supplied from a battery, control signals for controlling the electrical devices, etc. are supplied through the wire harness. When such a wire harness is manufactured, the wire harness is determined to be suitable as a whole in consideration of the layout of connectors, terminals of the connectors, kinds of electric wires, etc.
In addition, in a typical wire harness to be arranged in a vehicle, a plurality of sub-harnesses which, for example, belong to sub-groups corresponding to system circuits so that each sub-harness can be provided for a corresponding one of the circuits are combined into the wire harness as a while. That is, the wire harness is constituted by a combination of sub-harnesses respectively having specific component numbers for harness parts depending on a combination of electrical systems (for example, see JP-A-2004-268630).
However, the number of harness components tends to increase with diversification of kinds of vehicles, grades, specifications, etc. Accordingly, there is a problem that harnesses are manufactured in a wider-variety smaller-lot production form, and management becomes troublesome in spite of poor productivity. Therefore, in a wire harness disclosed in the aforementioned JP-A-2004-268630, circuits are divided into a common circuit independent of the existence of electrical systems that can be selected and a dedicated circuit for each electrical system that can be selected, and the common circuit and the dedicated circuit for each related electrical system are removably connected and combined through a branch connector (joint connector, junction box, junction block, etc.) so that a desired wire harness can be formed easily.
In recent years, as a communication system for controlling a plurality of electric devices mounted on a vehicle, there has been used a vehicle network system in which a plurality of electronic control units for controlling the electric devices respectively are connected to one another through a common multiplex communication line, and multiplexed signals are transmitted and received through the multiplex communication line so that operations of the electric devices can be controlled based on the multiplexed signals respectively. In addition, due to increase in number of circuits and sophistication of wire harnesses, assembling work cannot be finalized for each sub-harness. When a plurality of sub-harnesses are combined, post-fitting may be carried out in some sub-harnesses. In such a sub-harness, a terminal with an electric wire must be inserted into a connector (connector housing) of a mating sub-harness. There is a problem that the number of sub-harnesses requiring such post-fitting increases.
For example, a related-art wire harness 501 shown in FIG. 10 is constituted by a first sub-harness 510 and a second sub-harness 530. The first sub-harness 510 includes connectors (connector portions) CA, CB and CC, power supply lines 11A, 11B and 11C, CAN (Controller Area Network) communication lines 13A, 13B and 13C, and ground lines 19A, 19B and 19C. The connectors CA, CB and CC are connected to various electric devices A to C respectively. The power supply lines 11A, 11B and 11C are electric wires led out from the connectors CA, CB and CC respectively. In the same manner, the second sub-harness 530 also includes connectors (connector portions) CD, CE and CF, power supply lines 11D, 11E and 11F, CAN communication lines 13D, 13E and 13F, and ground lines 19D, 19E and 19F. The connectors CD, CE and CF are connected to various electric devices D to F respectively. The power supply lines 11D, 11E and 11F are electric wires led out from the connectors CD, CE and CF respectively. Further, among the connectors CA to CF, general communication lines 515, 517, 519, 521 and 523 for establishing direct connection with the electric devices A to F are connected suitably.
When the first sub-harness 510 is formed in a sub-harness manufacturing step, terminals (not shown) are connected to core wires at one terminal ends of the power supply lines 11A, 11B and 11C, the CAN communication lines 13A, 13B and 13C, the ground lines 19A, 19B and 19C and the general communication lines 515, 517, 519, 521 and 523 respectively. Then, as shown in FIG. 11, terminals 25A, 25B and 25C are connected to core wires at the other terminal ends of the power supply lines 11A, 11B and 11C respectively, connectors 21A, 21B and 21C are connected to the other terminal ends of the CAN communication lines 13A, 13B and 13C respectively, terminals 23A, 23B and 23C are connected to the other terminal ends of the ground lines 19A, 19B and 19C respectively, and terminals 551, 553, 555, 557 and 559 are connected to the other terminal ends of the general communication lines 515, 517, 519, 521 and 523 respectively.
On the other hand, when the second sub-harness 530 is formed, terminals (not shown) are connected to core wires at one terminal ends of the power supply lines 11D, 11E and 11F, the CAN communication lines 13D, 13E and 13F, and the ground lines 19D, 19E and 19F respectively. Then, as shown in FIG. 11, terminals 25D, 25E and 25F are connected to core wires at the other terminal ends of the power supply lines 11D, 11E and 11F respectively, connectors 21D, 21E and 21F are connected to the other terminal ends of the CAN communication lines 13D, 13E and 13F respectively, terminals 23D, 23E and 23F are connected to the other terminal ends of the ground lines 19D, 19E and 19F respectively.
In a wire harness manufacturing step, in the first sub-harness 510 and the second sub-harness 530 formed thus in advance, one terminal ends of the electric wires are connected to the electric devices A to F respectively, and the other terminal ends of the electric wires are connected to a power supply junction block 3, a CAN joint connector 5 and ground joint terminals 7 respectively. In addition, terminals 61 at opposite terminal ends of a ground line 62 in a ground connection line 60 are connected to the ground joint terminals 7 respectively, and the other terminal ends of the general communication lines 515, 517, 519, 521 and 523 are connected to the connectors CD, CE, CF and CC respectively. Thus, the wire harness 501 can be formed.
However, as is apparent from FIG. 11, when the first sub-harness 510 and the second sub-harness 530 are combined to form the wire harness 501, in the general communication lines 515, 517, 519, 521 and 523 whose one terminal ends are connected to the connectors CA, CB and CC, the terminals 551, 553, 555, 557 and 559 at the other terminal ends must be post-fitted to connector housings of the connectors CD, CE, CF and CC respectively. That is, the terminals 551, 553, 555, 557 and 559 with the electric wires must be inserted into the connector housings while parting the power supply lines 11C, 11D, 11E, 11F and 11C, the CAN communication lines 13D, 13E, 13F and 13C and the ground lines 19D, 19E, 19F and 19C, which have been connected to the connector housings of the connectors CD, CE, CF and CC respectively.
It is difficult to automate post-fitting of terminals in such a wire harness manufacturing step. Terminals with electric wires are often inserted into connectors by a worker on a conveyor. Thus, the workability is so poor that a human insertion mistake may cause erroneous wiring.